Too much for one day

Nicholas had quite the day. It started out with a lab draw that showed his hematocrit was down to 26. Therefore, they decided to transfuse him with PRBC's. Prior to the transfusion, he had to have an IV inserted; one attempt this time, which Nicholas and his moms greatly appreciated! The blood is transfused now. Hopefully, that will help increase his RBC's and therefore his oxygen sats (sorry for those not clinical, I try to explain some things and figure you can google the terms you are not familiar with). Over the last couple of days, Nicholas has dropped his oxygen sats and had more bradycardia (low heart rate) episodes. He had a chest x ray this morning to check his lungs. This afternoon, Dr. Bailey (neonatologist) came in to speak to us about the results - you can imagine our anxiety, especially when she made sure we all had chairs. Turns out the chest x-ray from this morning was vastly different from previous ones. Much to the docs surprise, they didn't expect to see such a difference given how well he has done to date. She anticipated seeing some atelectasis (collapse of part or all of the lung), but instead his lungs showed early signs of inflammation that could be driving the need for more supplemental oxygen and the pressure on his CPAP to increase. The proven treatment to help with this condition to prevent long term damage is INO or inhaled nitric oxide. They put that right into the oxygen he is already getting through his CPAP. He will be on it for 21 days. More information about the treatment can be found here: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/new/press/06-07-26.htm. They increased his feeds today by 1/2 cc every 12 hours. They also did a head ultrasound that was normal (very good news). Everything else in the chest x-ray was normal as well - some good news in our day. We ask that you keep us in your prayers and thoughts and send Nicholas good energy to continue to grow and for his lungs to improve with each coming day.